Category: News

Police have shot a person who is believed to have stabbed multiple victims in a horror spree in Long Beach, California.

Law enforcement rushed to the scene just before noon, where they took down the suspect in an ‘officer-involved shooting’ soon after locating him in the West Coast city. 

It is currently unconfirmed how many people were stabbed, however according to the Long Beach Post, up to four people may have been attacked near the Belmont Shore area. 

The Long Beach Fire Department officials told KTLA multiple people were being assessed by paramedics. 

Police maintained there is ‘no current threat to public safety’ following the incident. 

A Long Beach Fire Department spokesperson said one of the victims was transported to a local hospital, while the other victims were treated at the scene. 

The person who was shot by police was also taken to hospital, officials added. 

One local resident, Ray Vannatta, said that he was in his home nearby when his wife alerted him to severe commotion as the stabbing spree unfolded. 

He claimed that when he looked across at a park, he saw what appeared to be a fight, where one man was continuously punching another person while onlookers screamed and pleaded for help. 

Vanetta said he called police before approaching the situation, where he saw the assailant was brandishing a knife. 

Another witness added that the attacker fled the scene before they heard multiple gunshots. 

‘It hits close to home,’ Vannatta said. ‘It lets you know you should always be aware of your surroundings.’ 

This is a developing story, and more information will be provided as it is released. 

Penny Wong has issued a heartfelt tribute to her father after he passed away on Tuesday.

The Foreign Affairs minister announced the death of her dad Francis Wong Yit Shing late on Tuesday evening, saying he ‘passed peacefully’.

‘In his final days, he was surrounded by his loving family,’ she said.

‘We will all miss him. We are grateful for his full life, for the strength of his love for us all, for the opportunities he gave us and for the values he instilled.

‘We deeply appreciate the staff at The Alfred who have shown us so much compassion.

‘We are comforted by the many friends and colleagues who have reached out with heartfelt messages of support.’

Mr Wong had studied at the University of Adelaide and went on to work as an architect. 

More to come 

Voters in Iowa are looking forward to hearing from Ron DeSantis as former President Donald Trump‘s most formidable primary competitor prepares for his campaign kick-off event in Des Moines on Tuesday evening.

Several Republicans in the first primary contest state told DailyMail.com that they want to hear what Florida Gov. DeSantis is ‘all about’ before making a final decision on whether they will vote for him or Trump in 2024.

DeSantis officially announced his run for president last week, and is starting off the so-called Great America Comeback Tour Tuesday with a swing through early primary contest states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Whit, a Des Moines-based ride share driver, told DailyMail.com Monday evening that he thinks if DeSantis clinches the nomination, he could go on to beat President Biden – he isn’t sure if Trump could do the same.

Julie, a 42-year-old mother-of-two stopping for coffee before work Tuesday morning, said she wants to ‘hear what he’s all about’ before deciding whether she will cast her ballot for Trump or DeSantis in the Republican primary.

Several diner-goers shared with DailyMail.com their skepticism of choosing between Trump and DeSantis this early in the game, with one saying: ‘I voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, could switch to someone else if I like what he’s saying.’

It was hard to get anyone to commit to saying whether they would absolutely vote for DeSantis in the primary race, with most saying they don’t know enough about the Florida governor to make up their minds yet.

But there are still a few die-hard Trumpers in Des Moines who say they won’t abandon the former president in his third bid for the White House.

‘I like DeSantis, but I think he should have waited until 2028,’ Jack, a retired resident of Des Moines, told DailyMail.com.

After the Des Moines kick-off at Eternity Church on Tuesday evening, the governor and Florida’s first lady Casey DeSantis will head to four more Iowa states concluding Wednesday at a racetrack in Cedar Rapids. 

Then the couple will head to New Hampshire for a four-city tour of the small Northeast state, followed by another three-city single-day trip to South Carolina on Friday.

DeSantis then plans to go right back to the start of the trip in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday for GOP Senator Joni Ernst’s Roast & Ride fundraiser.

‘As military veterans, Joni and I both understand the importance of supporting those who have served our nation — and I’m excited to get the chance to do just that at the annual Roast & Ride,’ DeSantis said in a statement on the additional stop.

‘Over the past few months, Casey and I have had the pleasure of getting to know hard-working patriots across the great state of Iowa,’ he added. ‘Florida and Iowa have led the way in the fight for our way of life — and I’m running for president to take that fight to the White House. Our mission is simple: We are building a movement to restore America.’

DeSantis clearly understands the importance of winning over Republican primary voters in Iowa if he wants to beat Trump in 2024.

‘We are competing everywhere. Iowa is very important,’ the governor told Fox & Friends on Monday. ‘We’ve gotten an incredible amount of support. I got endorsed by 37 legislators there before I even announced my candidacy.’

‘We obviously have a lot in common with Iowa in terms of what Florida has done and what they’ve done under Governor Kim Reynolds,’ he added. ‘And I think the groundswell of support has been really, really strong. We’re going to press the case.’

Investigators will probe whether private school boys used a TikTok ‘deodorant bomb’ to start a once-in-a-decade fire in Sydney. 

The seven-storey building on Randle Street in Surry Hills erupted into flames last Thursday, with almost 120 firefighters called to fight the towering blaze.  

On Tuesday, NSW Police confirmed investigators had spoken to four boys about the incident but are yet to lay any charges. 

2GB’s Ben Fordham said the arson squad was investigating whether the fire was started by a homemade deodorant bomb that recently trended on TikTok. 

The radio host said he received the information from concerned parents of a friend of one of the boys allegedly involved in the incident.

‘It’s one of those crazy crazes that has spread on social media,’ he said. 

‘I’ve seen a video online, it’s been made by a kid teaching others how to make a deodorant bomb, I’m not going to describe how it’s made.

‘Apparently deodorant bombs are a bit of a thing.’ 

More to come. 

Joe Biden accuser Tara Reade is seeking to defect to Russia – saying on a Kremlin-backed program that she has fears for her own safety in the U.S. 

Reade made a series of stunning assertions while appearing on Russian state TV with Maria Butina, who was convicted of acting as an unregistered foreign agent inside the U.S. while cultivating relationships with a series of U.S. political figures. Reade called Butina ‘my friend.’

Butina, who was elected to the state Duma in Russia and subjected to U.S. sanctions after Russia’s Ukraine invasion, said Reade made her decision on a visit to Moscow.

‘I’m still kind of in a daze a bit but I feel very good,’ Reade said in an appearance aired on Sputnik. ‘I feel very surrounded by protection and safety. And I just really so appreciate Maria [Butina] and everyone who’s been giving me that at a time when it’s been very difficult to know if I’m safe or not.’ 

She fielded questions from audience members during an appearance, where she bashed the U.S. position arming Ukraine following Russia’s invasion. 

‘It’s very sad that America has chosen the wrong side in history,’ she said, echoing Kremlin propaganda about the Ukrainian government.

She described her visit to Moscow as breaking impressions. ‘The food tastes so good – there’s no chemicals, there’s no GMOs,’ she said. ‘I’m not just giving you a smoke screen.’

She said she wasn’t sure she would go back to the U.S. even if Biden is replaced, although she expressed doubts he ‘makes it to run again.’

‘I’m not sure if the new president will change anything for me. I have lawyers working right now to figure out because some of the cases are sealed that are against me, so I don’t know what they have in mind. But I do know this that unfortunately, the Democratic National Committee is quite corrupt. Unless that’s dismantled and taken down. I’m not sure things will get better,’ she said.

‘To my Russian brothers and sisters, I’m sorry right now that American elites are choosing to have such an aggressive stance. Just know that most American citizens do want to be friends,’ she said, the DailyBeast reported.

She also tore into U.S. defense contractors, and called the bombing of the Nordstream pipeline a ‘war crime’ that she suggested was carried out by the U.S. – echoing Kremlin claims. 

Reade during the 2020 presidential campaign accused Biden of having sexually assaulted her while he was a senator.

Butina said through a translator she would pursue ‘people to people contacts’ in Russia and experience Russian culture, and pledged to help her draft her applications to support her finding ‘a way for Tara to stay here in Russia’ that would go all the way to Russian President Vladimir Putin. She said she would help pursue a ‘fast track procedure.’ 

But after the allegations drew headlines, there were reports she ‘left a trail of aggrieved acquaintances in California’s Central Coast region who say they remember two things about her — she spoke favorably about her time working for Biden, and she left them feeling duped.’

That included a landlord who called her ‘manipulative’ and who said when then she and her husband wanted to sell the unit she was renting Reade, who went by a different name, told her ”You’re going to have to pay me to get me to leave.’ 

PBS interviewed 74 former Biden staffers after Reade leveled her allegations of sexual assault from the 1990s.

The New York Times reported in April 2020 that Reade, who had featured in reports from multiple women who said Biden engaged in kissing and hugging that made them uncomfortable, had alleged that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 in a Senate office building.

But it also reported that ‘no other allegation about sexual assault surfaced in the course of reporting, nor did any former Biden staff members corroborate any details of Ms. Reade’s allegation.’

She issued a cryptic tweet earlier this month after Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) invited her to testify. ‘I want to make something clear. If something happens to me, all roads lead to Joe Biden. Joe Biden and DNC political machine threats, bullying and intimidation over the last three years will not work. I am not suicidal. I should not be under investigation nor am I a foreign agent.’ 

Late last year, Russian diplomats sought to bring Reade to the UN to testify about diversion of U.S. weapons provided to Ukraine, Semafor reported. 

An Ice Age-era mastodon tooth was discovered and later taken from a Northern California beach after the woman who found took a picture of it and then left thinking it was driftwood.

The woman posted photos of the foot-long tooth that washed up at Aptos Creek in Santa Cruz to Facebook which caught the attention of local paleontologists. 

‘She didn’t know what it was, the importance of it. It looks like a piece of old firewood,’ said Wayne Thompson, an advisor for the local history museum. 

‘So she left it there. It’s understandable,’ the paleontology advisor told KRON. 

Another prehistoric artifact was once found at the same creek in 1980 when a 16-year-old boy walking the beach area discovered a juvenile mastodon skull. 

Jennifer Schuh who discovered the tooth said she found it at Rio Del Mar Beach and that while she didn’t know for sure what it was, she felt the urge to take pictures. 

‘I saw my husband walking over and I was like “you’ve got to see this,”‘ said Schuh. 

‘He was like “huh, what am I… what is it? Are you going to take it?” and I’m like “well no, I’m just going to leave it cause I don’t have no use for it,”‘ Schuh continued. 

The photos show the 12-inch tooth laying in the sand with brown roots and a dark-black neck and crown area at the top. 

According to Live Science, the tusked-animals ranged in size from seven feet for some females to ten feet for males. 

The prehistoric creatures were smaller than mammoths, which they are often compared to, but could still weigh an estimated four to six tons.

Schuh posted the photos of the discovery to Facebook in hopes that some of her friends could identify the find. 

The snaps eventually made it to Thompson at the Santa Cruz Natural History Museum which is when the search began. 

‘People said “woah that looks like a giant tooth.” I practically hit the floor. It was a mastodon tooth, right in the same area where we know mastodons lived in Santa Cruz County,’ Thompson said. 

According to Thompson, the tooth belonged to a Pacific Mastodon.

By the time the paleontology advisor and Schuh made contact, the tooth was gone. ‘It wasn’t there. It’s MIA right now,’ he said. 

The tide was not high enough to wash away the object so it is believed another beachgoer who visited over the weekend nabbed it. 

Searchers also sorted through the sand but came up with nothing.   

Thompson said the tooth was ‘so high on the beach in the dry sand the only option is somebody took it. They might not know what it is, and think it’s an old piece of petrified wood.’

The discovery comes more than 40 years after the first remnants of a mastodon was found in Santa Cruz County at the exact same beach. 

In 1980, Jim Stanton found a skull that is currently on display at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History.

‘The skull found 40 years ago had sutures in the bones which were not completely fused, meaning that it was a juvenile,’ Thompson said. 

‘The tooth that was found at the mouth of Aptos Creek was significantly worn and was from an older adult probably in their 30s or 40s,’ he continued. 

According to Thompson, the latest tooth discovery serves as a sign that Santa Cruz County may have been home to a pack of mastodons millions of years ago. 

He also said they are hoping whoever took the tooth will soon return it. 

‘It’s super, super, super important for understanding elephant life in Santa Cruz County during the last Ice Age,’ Thompson told KRON.    

‘There are only a few mammoth specimens, and mammoths are more common than mastodons. Aptos was a popular destination for Ice Age proboscideans,’ he said. 

‘It’s a piece of Santa Cruz history,’ Thompson stated. 

The Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History asks that the person who found the tooth call 831-420–6115 or email them at [email protected]. 

A desperate search has been launched for a missing man who fell from a Carnival cruise ship balcony nearly 200 miles off the coast of Florida. 

Ronnie Lee Peale Jr., 35, was seen on surveillance footage leaning over the railing of his stateroom balcony on the Carnival Magic before plunging into the water around 4am on Monday, the cruise line said.

Aircraft and search ships have been deployed in the area where he disappeared – around 186 miles east of Jacksonville in Florida. 

The ship had been making its way back to port in Norfolk, Virginia, on Monday following a five-day trip around the Bahamas.  

Jennilyn Michelle Blosser, who said she was Peale’s fiancé, reported him missing on Monday afternoon. 

Ship staff later looked at security video and saw his fall after they failed to find him during a search.

‘He was the life of the party. It just hurts too much to even type, let alone talk about it,’ Blosser told 13 News.

‘He loved the cruise life being able to drink, gamble, and socialize put him in his happy place.’ 

Blosser has since launched a GoFundMe where she said he ‘had a great time and made plenty of friends’.

‘He is our social butterfly that was always on the move and loved to make friends with everyone. The cruise was definitely a place he enjoyed.

‘I never could of imagine something like this could happen. Devastated to say the least.’.

USCGSD confirmed the man was still missing on Tuesday afternoon. 

The service said in a statement: ‘Crews are searching for a 35 year-old man who went overboard from the Carnival Magic cruise ship 186 miles east of Jacksonville on Monday. 

‘The Coast Guard is utilizing both air and water assets to conduct the search’. 

They later added that the search by air would continue sunset, while boats would continue to scour the waters ‘throughout the night’.

‘Crews will continue the search for the 35 year-old man with air assets until sunset and water assets throughout the night,’ they said.

‘The total area searched by Coast Guard crews is 4,044 square miles and 19 hours of resource search hours.’

Passengers on board the ship told WTKR that they heard cruise ship staff asking for Peale over the intercom. 

‘There was a security team storming each deck, each floor, concerned. But eventually, they let everybody know that he wasn’t found,’ Leevon Porter told the outlet.

Another passenger said the ship’s staff didn’t alert them about the man going overboard, and they later learned about the incident through a Facebook comment posted by Blosser. 

‘There was a Facebook page for the cruise and she put it on there.’

The coast guard told AP that the man’s companion had reported him missing late Monday afternoon, and security footage on the ship showed he had ‘leaned over the railing of his stateroom balcony and dropped into the water’ at around 4am. 

Carnival said the Coast Guard released the ship from search efforts and told the captain to head back to port in Norfolk, Virginia. 

The operator said: ‘Carnival Magic reported a man overboard to the U.S. Coast Guard. 

‘He was reported missing by his companion late Monday afternoon and an initial review of closed circuit security footage confirms that he leaned over the railing of his stateroom balcony and dropped into the water at approximately 4:10 a.m. Monday. 

‘The U.S. Coast Guard has released the ship from any search and rescue efforts and advised the ship’s captain to continue on its way to Norfolk where it arrived as planned on Tuesday. 

‘The Carnival Care Team is providing support to the guest’s companion and traveling party who are on board.’

The ship can hold nearly 4,000 guests and is about 1,000 feet long. 

Police have arrested a 28-year-old man in connection with the murder of a New Jersey councilwoman who was shot 14 times in her car outside her home in February.

Rashid Ali Bynum, of Portsmouth, Virginia, was taken into custody Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder, second-degree unlawful possession of a handgun, and second-degree possession of a handgun for an unlawful purpose. 

Eunice Dwumfour, 30, was brutally gunned down after she dropped someone off in Sayreville on February 1 with friends calling it a ‘targeted and personal attack.’ She crashed her SUV and was slumped over the wheel after the attack –  with horrified neighbors hearing multiple gunshots and then the crash. 

From Bynum’s phone records law enforcement discovered ties between him and the Newark Chapter of Nigerian-based Champions Royal Assembly Church where Dwumfour is said to have worked with Bynum prior to her death. 

Though Dwumfour was a Newark native and has family there, she was living in Sayreville as a single mother. She had recently married a pastor who lives in Nigeria.

Witnesses at the time of the fatal shooting said they saw a white vehicle nearby. Law enforcement said they pinpointed Bynum’s phone and car, a white Hyundai Elantra, using cellular tower extraction records, the New Jersey Globe reported.

It is claimed this is what led the Middlesex Prosecutor’s office to Smithfield, town of about 8,000 in southeastern Virginia, about 20 miles from Newport News.

From Bynum’s phone records law enforcement discovered ties between him and the Newark Chapter of Nigerian-based Champions Royal Assembly Church where Dwumfour is said to have worked with Bynum prior to her death.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Bynum lives in Portsmouth, Virginia.

Bynum became acquainted with Dwumfour in 2017 when he lived in the Skytop Gardens Apartments in Parlin.

Phone records also tie Bynum to the Champions Royal Assembly Church, the Parlin-based Fire Congress Fellowship, and mutual contacts with Dwumfour.

According to the outlet, records show that Bynum also has outstanding warrants for failure to appear on four summonses connected to a June 2019 traffic stop in Cranbury. 

He had been stopped for making an illegal U-Turn and then received a summons for driving with a suspended license and other violations.

The FBI has been involved in the investigation along with Sayreville police and the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, but have released few details about the investigation.

Bynum is awaiting extradition to New Jersey where he will then be held at the Middlesex County Adult Correctional facility pending a pre-trial detention hearing in Superior Court.

In the early stages of the investigation, some neighbors told police that they’d seen Dwumfour speaking to a man outside her car on security footage just before the shooting. 

Dwumfour married pastor Eze Kings, who lives in Nigeria, just before Thanksgiving, and lived in the apartment with her 12-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.

Pictures from her wedding day show how happy the mother-of-one was, grinning next to her new husband.

Kings posted on Facebook about the loss of his bride after the shooting by wishing her a happy birthday in advance.

‘4th March is your birthday happy glorious birthday in addy my love.’ 

‘Addy’ is Nigerian slang for the word advance. 

He accompanied the post with several photos of the couple’s wedding, which Dwumfour had celebrated in an Instagram post on December 7.

Alexandra Bryan, a neighbor who lived close to where the shooting happened, told the New York Times that she heard what she had initially thought were fireworks twice just after 7 pm.

‘Two times, right after one another’, she said. ‘Like five seconds apart.

‘It’s a really nice complex,’ Bryan added. ‘Children are able to play around without parents. It’s always quiet. That’s why it’s such a shock to everybody.’ 

Dwumfour was found inside her white Nissan SUV with multiple gunshot wounds on Samuel Circle just before 7.30pm. 

Friend and pastor Nelia Rodriguez told The Ingraham Angle she believes the incident was a ‘personal attack’.

She added: ‘We believe it [was] very personal because she was shot seven times in the face and another seven shots were hitting everywhere else.

‘So for somebody to get so close to somebody and shoot them so many times, it has to be personal.’

Dwumfour ousted the sitting Democrat in the Borough of Sayreville in November 2021, in a shock election win, and was not up for reelection until 2024.

A friend told DailyMail.com that she and her family had just returned from Nigeria on a church trip – describing her as ‘bubbly and nice’.

Family members told USA Today that she lived at the property with her 12-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.

Her sister Priscilla said: ‘She was always happy, very humble and had respect.’

Friends of the councilwoman paid tribute to her as an ‘amazing friend’ who ‘loved god’. 

Detective Juan Rodriguez and Pastor Doctor Nelia Rodriguez posted online saying: ‘I just saw her this morning at the store.

‘I remember saying to her I’ll see you at the HRC meeting tomorrow not knowing tonight was going to be the end of her life.

‘I can’t stop crying. She was 30 years young and full of life. You will be missed my dear, precious friend.’

Dwumfour was a Certified Business Analyst and Scrum Professional for Fire Congress Fellowship inc. and a part-time EMT.

She graduated from William Paterson University and served as a Director of Churches for the Nigerian-based Champions Royal Assembly.

In a statement Sayreville Mayor Victoria Kilpatrick said: ‘The community is shocked and saddened at the loss of Eunice Dwumfour, who was a dedicated member of our Borough Council who was truly committed to serve all of our residents.

‘The fact that she was taken from us by a despicable criminal act makes this incident all the more horrifying.’

Sayreville Republican Chair Karen Bailey Bebert added: ‘We remember Eunice for how she lived, not for how she died.

‘She was the embodiment of Sayreville, living the American Dream, overcoming challenges with grit and a smile.

‘And always giving of time and love to others. She embodied Sayreville and will be terribly missed by all who were fortunate enough to know her.’

Governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy added that he was ‘stunned’ by her murder and branded it an ‘act of gun violence’.

He told WNYC there was ‘little known’ about the motivation for the incident which ‘does not appear to be related to her potion as an elected councilwoman in Sayreville.’

The nuns of a Catholic convent in Texas say a local bishop is denying them the sacraments of confession and daily communion, after he accused the prioress of breaking her vow of chastity with a priest.

In a statement to DailyMail.com on Tuesday, an attorney for the Discalced Carmelite Nuns in Arlington said Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson had denied the sisters’ request to resume daily Mass at the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity.

It comes after Olson made bombshell allegations, in a public statement and court filings, that Reverend Mother Superior Teresa Agnes Gerlach, had ‘committed sins against the Sixth Commandment and violated her vow of chastity with a priest,’ a claim she strenuously denies.

Matthew Bobo, the Carmelites’ civil attorney, said that in a recent letter, Olson declined the nun’s plea to send priests to the convent to hear confession or celebrate daily Mass, citing inconvenience.

‘This latest salvo from Bishop Olson is an unbelievably extreme display of arrogance, vengeance and hard-heartedness,’ said Bobo. 

Olson’s letter also cites ‘media coverage inciting hatred and animosity’ directed toward the bishop in the wake of the nuns’ civil suit, the nuns’ attorney said. 

A spokesman for Olson and the diocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com on Tuesday afternoon.

For decades, Mass had been celebrated daily in the monastery for the nuns and several dozen laypeople, but in recent weeks, priests have only performed the sacrament in perfunctory Sunday ceremonies for the nuns, and have not heard confession, Bobo said. 

‘At the present moment, daily Mass and Confessions cannot be conveniently provided for the members of Monastery; nor can the courtesy of participation at Mass at the Monastery be extended to the lay faithful,’ Olson said in the letter to Sister Francis Therese, who is Gerlach’s second in command. 

‘This is because you and Mother Teresa Agnes (Gerlach) of Jesus Crucified, O.C.D., have lodged a civil lawsuit, together with a request for a protection order, against me and the Diocese of Fort Worth, containing a false narrative relative to the pending investigation,’ said Olson.

The bishop added the situation ‘has led to local, national, and international media coverage and has incited hatred and animosity against me because of my initiation of the investigation and has hindered the freedom of my ecclesiastical power to conduct that investigation.’ 

‘Further obstruction of the investigation has occurred since you and certain members of the Monastery have refused to cooperate with the investigation,’ the bishop added. 

Bobo responded by noting that the nuns follow the rule of St. Therese of Lisieux, which recommends that the nuns take Communion ‘Every day according to the spirit and norms of Holy Church.’ 

He added that Gerlach strenuously denies the allegations made by Olson regarding her vow of chastity. 

‘Despite the Bishop’s contention, Mother Superior has not admitted to any grave misconduct that would warrant his extreme and emotionally damaging measures,’ Bobo said. 

‘I cannot imagine the heartbreak and psychological suffering these prayerful women—set apart from the world to pray for it—are experiencing at the hands of their God-given shepherd,’ he added.

The saga first emerged in a lawsuit filed by Gerlach and her convent earlier this month in Tarrant Country Court, naming Bishop Olson and the Diocese of Fort Worth as defendants.  

In the suit, Gerlach accused Olson of storming into the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity, which she oversees, interrogating her and the other sisters, and seizing the phones and computers they use to run the convent.

Gerlach, 45, has severe chronic health issues and is confined to a wheelchair, and has lived in religious seclusion at the all-female monastery for the past 25 years, her attorney said.

She was still under the influence of fentanyl from a surgical procedure when Olson entered the convent to grill her as part of his investigation, she said in a sworn affidavit. The lawsuit does not describe the nature of Olson’s purported investigation.

In response to the suit, the Diocese of Fort Worth issued a statement sharing allegations that Gerlach had ‘committed sins against the Sixth Commandment and violated her vow of chastity with a priest’ from outside the diocese.

The statement said that Olson was conducting a ‘ecclesiastical investigation into the report of the grave misconduct’ under church rules, also known as canon law.

In the Catholic Church, the Sixth Commandment is ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’ and forbids sex outside of marriage. Catholic priests and nuns are forbidden to marry and take vows of celibate chastity.

In a court filing viewed by DailyMail.com, the diocese asked for the suit to be dismissed and alleged that Gerlach ‘has admitted to violating her vow of chastity, with a priest’.

Bobo slammed that assertion as false in an interview with DailyMail.com last week, saying that Gerlach has not made such an admission, and that she does not even know the specific allegation against her.

‘We don’t even know what the allegation is, and we’ve asked,’ said Bobo, adding that he had repeatedly asked the diocese: ‘Tell me what you think she did. What is the crime or the sin you think she committed? What led you to that belief?’ 

‘The bishop just decided to lob this bombshell out there, and for the life of us, we don’t even know what the specifics of the allegation are. But I can absolutely tell you, she’s never had sex with a priest,’ the attorney said. 

The diocese spokesman did not respond when asked to comment on the specific nature of the sexual misconduct allegations against Gerlach.

In one of the only clues offered in court records, a letter from Olson to a sister at the monastery makes reference to a ‘canonical warning’ he issued to Gerlach apparently forbidding her from using cell phones.

‘Texting enables her sin,’ the April 28 letter states, quoting Olson’s own text message to a nun he had apparently tasked with monitoring Gerlach’s communications. 

At the heart of Gerlach’s civil claim against Olson is the assertion that the local bishop has no authority over the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, which maintains the convent on a roughly 72-acre property. 

‘We are not and have never been under the control of the Bishop of the local Diocese: we answer directly to the Pope,’ said Gerlach in the affidavit.

‘I was stunned when Bishop Olson for all intents and purposes forced himself onto our peaceful community,’ she added.

The lawsuit states that the Carmelite nuns ‘are a cloistered Order of women dedicated to a life of contemplative prayer’ who attend Mass each morning, and then gather seven times a day to chant the Liturgy of the Hours. 

‘The rest of their day is focused on contemplative prayer, the silent loving person to person relationship with Jesus Christ, a living prayer for the benefit of others,’ the suit notes. 

They have a new bicentenary slogan on the Oxford Union Society’s literature this year: ‘Celebrating 200 years of free speech’. 

Last night, a vociferous alliance from across the ‘trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming and intersex’ community was doing its best to draw a line under that long and noble tradition by attempting to silence a middle-aged woman who has had the temerity to argue that a person with a penis is not a biological woman.

Yet despite repeated attempts to curtail the appearance of Professor Kathleen Stock in the society’s famous debating chamber – including a sit-down protester with a tube of glue – it was cancel culture which was ultimately cancelled.

Despite a 20-minute delay, the weary but unflappable 51-year-old academic, author, lesbian feminist and mother-of-two finished her talk as planned, above a chorus of abusive chanting in the street outside.

Amid so much heat and noise, Professor Stock’s central thesis could be summed as follows: sorry, folks but biological reality trumps one’s inner feelings.

As she explained to a packed house – many of whom gave her a standing ovation at the beginning and the end: ‘You can go about your life pretending for a while but ultimately reality will hit you in the face.’

Turning to the (male) president of the Oxford Union, she added: ‘I can think of myself as a man all I like but ultimately I’m not going to arm wrestle you very successfully’

It was a rare note of levity during an evening in which Professor Stock repeatedly emphasised that her battle has always been with the idea of gender self-identification, not with transgender people themselves. ‘We can disagree reasonably and still be friends,’ she urged them.

Naïve, perhaps, but hardly the words of a war criminal.

The society’s invitation to Professor Stock had been billed as some sort of Waterloo of the zeitgeist. 

Over-excited voices on both sides of the transgender divide had even likened this to the Oxford Union’s ‘King and Country’ debate of 1933 (when a majority vote not to go to war was credited with emboldening Nazi Germany).

This was nothing of the sort. It was, though, very much a litmus test of the current strength of ‘cancel culture’ in British academe.

It was also a good, old-fashioned campus rumpus, enlivened by the protester with the glue and a lot of gulping, self-righteous fury.

Warnings that a thousand demonstrators would besiege one of the world’s best-known debating societies, gladly risking arrest, did not come to pass. 

A few hundred protesters played music, shouted esoteric chants – ‘Cut your system, f*** your hate, we’re not open for debate’ – and then dispersed. This is, after all, a university town in the middle of exam season.

The event was not a debate and there was no vote. It was a talk by an author whose straight-talking (some might say old-fashioned) views on what really constitutes a woman saw Professor Stock drummed out of her last academic post at the University of Sussex.

She has since found herself in the frontline of the ‘culture wars’, demonised alongside Harry Potter author JK Rowling as a ‘transphobe’ for challenging the right of a biological male to enter women-only spaces on their own say-so.

It has done no harm to book sales, however. When I dropped in at the Oxford branch of Waterstone’s yesterday, I was told that Professor Stock had sold out ahead of the meeting

The Oxford Union’s invitation had certainly galvanised plenty of opposition across the university. 

A number of colleges had joined the chorus of disapproval, their student bodies formally voting to denounce Professor Stock as a ‘notorious… dangerous… unreliable transphobe’ (those were the words of the Junior Common Room of Christ Church College, alma mater of Gladstone and Peel).

Above all, they wanted the Oxford Union to rescind its invitation.

However, a number of academics – 44 in total – had penned an open letter to the Daily Telegraph saying that the Union should stick to its guns. In the current climate, that in itself was newsworthy.

Police teams surrounded the narrow streets around the Union long before the arrival of the star turn.

Professor Stock arrived through a side entrance, flanked by minders, in a trademark dark blue trouser suit and T-shirt – she has said that she ‘got rid of every single skirt and dress’ she ever owned after coming out as a lesbian (following years of marriage to the father of her teenage sons, with whom she is still on ‘excellent’ terms).

A tall (six foot), slim woman, she exuded a battle-hardened confidence and a certain wariness, along with the aura of one who had already done the rounds of several television and radio studios earlier in the day and was really rather keen to get home.

The event opened with some fairly genial jousting between the president, Matthew Dick of Magdalen College, and his guest. 

Just ten minutes in, a couple of hecklers marched down the aisles and then out of the chamber, a pre-planned distraction while a third protester glued their hand to the floor in front of the stage.

A very genteel flap ensued before a police quartet armed with rubber gloves, solvent and a video camera removed the sedentary obstacle, who duly received a hero’s welcome out in the street.

Looking bored rather than perturbed, Professor Stock smiled a thin smile and sat tight.

As she reflected afterwards, almost fondly: ‘It wasn’t traumatic. It was a bit ‘student’.’

She was soon taking questions from all-comers. Not all were entirely complimentary.

As ever with this debate, there was much impenetrable jargon to contend with. We heard a lot of dense stuff about ‘natal subsets’, ‘genetic drift’, ‘pathways’, ‘normative identities’ and detailed analysis of the infrastructural challenges of putting ‘third space’ toilet arrangements into public places.

It will certainly not go down as one of the oratorical high points in Oxford Union history. Nor will it win many points for entertainment value.

However, it established an important point in an important seat of learning: Free speech – for now, at least – is not to be silenced.